Rethinking “nature”

As a white middle-class woman who has been an outdoor educator and enthusiast for most of my life, being a student of social work and public health (MPH/MSW) has made me re-think my relationship to (and assumptions about) nature. Especially given the failings of the environmental movement to include/incorporate voices & people of color and its sometime damaging effects upon developing countries in the name of “sustainability”, I think it is important that we re-examine the power and privilege dynamics inherent to the construction of nature, especially as pertains to the complex interplay between our physical and social environments. At the risk of copyright infringement, I recently read a poem in the anthology “Black Nature” that particularly moved me; it is powerful, upsetting, and thought-provoking. Enjoy.